Organizational Media Futures is a blog on the evolving nature of media technologies and organizational change. Students and faculty contribute to this blog as members of the Cal State East Bay Media Futures Group, a nonprofit think tank emphasizing foresight as a critical tool for creating sustainable initiatives local and global.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Kelly Flaherty - Office Space Quote

Bob Slydell: Milton Waddams. Dom Portwood: Who's he? Bob Porter: You know, squirrely looking guy, mumbles a lot. Dom Portwood: Oh, yeah. Bob Slydell: Yeah, we can't actually find a record of him being a current employee here. Bob Porter: I looked into it more deeply and I found that apparently what happened is that he was laid off five years ago and no one ever told him about it; but through some kind of glitch in the payroll department, he still gets a paycheck. Bob Slydell: So we just went ahead and fixed the glitch. Bill Lumbergh: Great. Dom Portwood: So, uh, Milton has been let go? Bob Slydell: Well, just a second there, professor. We, uh, we fixed the *glitch*. So he won't be receiving a paycheck anymore, so it'll just work itself out naturally. Bob Porter: We always like to avoid confrontation, whenever possible. Problem is solved from your end.

As the criticism of the model of information transfer explains, this form of communication is too simplistic of a representation of how we communicate successfully. The form of communication they are using is linear, with either messages not being recieved at all or unintended messages being recieved. Milton was never told he was fired, plus he still recieved payment, so he had no reason to believe he did not work there anymore. On the other hand, no one doing anything after he was fired gave the unintended message that he was still supposed to work there too, which added to the illusion and confusion.